According to NBC affiliate KAMR, Amarillo Fire Department responded to a medical call around 5:00 Monday morning. What he didn't know is that when the chemical is exposed to water, it produces phosphine gas - which causes respiratory failure. Six other people were hospitalized and were "not out of the woods yet", a rescue official tells the Associated Press.

A hazmat team investigates after four children died when someone at their home sprayed water on an applied pesticide in Amarillo, Texas. The four children who died ranged in age from 7 to 17.

Their mother, Martha, was taken to Lubbock's University Medical Center where she was listed in critical condition, Amarillo Globe-News reports.

They are believed to be four of eight siblings who lived at the home, which has been sealed off by firefighters.

Larry Davis said Tuesday that the father told first responders he had spread a professional grade pest control pellet under the family's mobile home.

In an effort to rid his family's home of rodents, a man may have inadvertently poisoned his family last weekend because he was unaware of the extreme danger posed by misuse of a pesticide he'd used against the rodents.

First responders from AFD, APD and AMR were treated at the hospital, but none appeared to have any signs or symptoms from possible exposure, AFD said.

When aluminum phosphide is mixed with any moisture, it produces a toxic phosphine gas, which is what took the lives of the four kids. "The chemical is only sold to people that have a license to apply it, and he got this black market".

"There was a lot of love in that family and still is", said Nichole Wells, a teacher at Travis Middle School who taught 3 of the 8 Balderas children.

Neighbors spoke of a "good family" whose kids brightened up the neighborhood and kept it "alive".

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